Good News and Annoying Symptoms

Good news everybody! I finally have my knee surgery date! It's in a week!? It's in a week from this morning. Someone else had to cancel and apparently I was the first person who was free to take their place. This is both good and bad news. Good because I really would like my knee to not be causing constant pain and going off track at random times. Bad because i'll likely miss a week of school (or more) and have to do painful physiotherapy for at least six weeks. But still...after that it should be all good!

The surgery i'm getting is called a lateral release. Thats where they go in with small incisions and a camera and snip some connective tissue that is too tight and pulling the kneecap off center. The connective tissue will heal and be less tight and the physiotherapy ensures your muscles help hold the kneecap in place. It's an outpatient procedure, so hopefully i'll be able to go home the same day.

I'm hoping over the week to stock up my freezer with some meals so Bran wont have to do all the cooking (and i'll have something to eat when he is at work and i'm recovering). I'm thinking easy things like soups, especially since we don't have much freezer room. Maybe some french toast...

In other news, annoying mood swings today. Had an anxiety attack, which was stopped with the help of some passion flower extract. Then after I got home from class my head felt achey and was getting symptoms similar to when I came off cymbalta. It might be because i'm titrating off of amitriptyline, if I recall it has a longer half life so maybe i'm only getting the discontinuation symptoms now?

Pain in hip was up a bit, maybe 3/4.

Manufacturing Class and Lyrica

So this is my 366th post! That mean's i've written (all together) a year's worth of posts. Pretty exciting.

Anyway, Lyrica is pretty heavy duty. I woke up in a complete fog. It was like walking in a fun house most of the day. It cleared up later, around 2 pm, so I was able to attend class. This is at 75 mg twice daily mind you, so i'm starting out a bit heavier than others i've read about (who started at 50 mg once daily). I think i'll be alright though. As I said, I made it through class and tomorrow is a day off then the weekend so i'll have some time to adjust. I'm also titrating off amitriptyline, though I don't think the fogginess was from that.

In other news, I had a really great time at class! We were learning about herbal tablets and capsules. We actually made some tablets (although they are wet, and would need to be dried out) :D. It's amazing how easy they were to make, but granted we had medical grade herbs in class. If we were making it for clients we would need to be much more careful about measuring and whatnot. Still, it was fun :).

Pain level was down today, maybe only a 2 or 3. Whether that is due to lyrica or just a good day i'm not sure. I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow :) quite excited for it.

48 Hours Later

It's been a long 48 hours. Monday I was feeling pretty good, until the evening when my back hurt so much I had trouble sleeping and woke up a lot. Tuesday my back spasmed horribly, and more of my leg went numb (i've had a numb stripe since the microdiscectomy). ER, three crying fits, and a few hours later i'm sent home and told to see my gp and start some nerve pain meds. So thats what I do. I missed class again today (which I HATE doing) to see my gp (and have another crying fit >.>) and get a script for Lyrica.

I also got a script for sertraline. Because i'm not coping and my anxiety is up so high that i'm apparently crying infront of every health practitioner I come across. I'm not particularly proud of this...the crying or the sertraline...but I can't keep going like this, with either the pain or the emotions about the pain. I've used sertraline in the past with success, so i'm hoping it'll help carry me through this rough patch. 

So now i'm starting up a small dose of Lyrica and titrating down the amitriptyline before adding sertraline in 8 days or so. It isn't going to be a fun 8 days or so. I've already given warning to my husband. But i'm hoping this will help. I'm just so tired of this.

Break in the Storm

Feeling tired. Today my levels were significantly down, thankfully. I'm not sure why...the only differenced are that I laid down more yesterday and I actually took my panadol osteo at 6 am this morning. Whatever it is, i'm thankful. I had a nice chat with my counsellor as well. She called me rather than have me go in, as it's still difficult to walk. She thought it was good that I was able to make the connection between the childhood trama and my fears about getting worse. I'm thankful to have her as a resource. I'm hopeful that i'll be well enough to go back to school this week.

Puppy Paws

I had another day at home today. Milo really needed to go to the vet as his paw was not looking good. We did go (after wrapping his paw in a sock and a plastic baggie) and he is to take antibiotics for three weeks. Poor thing :(. But he was happy enough to get out for a walk and get two extra spoons of peanut butter (with pills secretly hidden inside). We've both been resting for the rest of the day. I took my hard won endone, while it help with the pain only a little it does also make me foggy brained (and thus think about the pain less). I'm up to the therapeutic dose of amitriptyline now, so i'll give it a week or two and see how we go.

Likely i'll stay home and rest for the rest of the week, which means i'll be missing class :(. Not my favourite thing, as these classes are quite important, but I need to do what is best for me and sitting on those horrible chairs for three hours a day isn't doing me any favours.

We also found out that our neighbours (yes, the ones we've had problems with) have sold their unit! Good for them :) hopefully they move to a nice house away from here. Though I wonder what the new owners are like.

Being Thankful

Today was a not-so-much-fun day. I woke up with horrible back/sciatic pain. Really the worst i've had since I hurt my back working. Just aching, shooting, deep pain. Luckily, I already had a GP appointment. She was really great with everything, she think Lyrica will be the thing to help but I want to get up to the therapeutic dose of amitriptyline before I try anything else. She gave me some endone to get me through the worst days, with warnings not to get too attached. Which I wont. Because I hate the cloudy head feeling I get on anything heavier than 1 panadeine forte.

After a loooong travel back and a arduously slow hobble back to the apartment, I open up my new bag of trick to find that the pharmacist forgot the endone. W.T.F. After a hissy fit, I call them and of course there is a process to go through since it is a restricted drug (being a stronger opiate). After some time and a few calls the pharmacist says that he can't see on the security tape whether they did or did not give it to me, but as they know me he will drop it off at my apartment tonight. Really? Tonight? Yup. Returns my faith in humanity :). Thank you nice pharmacist. About an hour later I get my endone hand delivered to my door with apologies.

I'm so thankful to have people on my side, believing that i'm telling the truth. I'm so thankful to have people looking out for me :).

Milo, on the other hand, still had a sore paw. We are going to the vet tomorrow.

Rough Stuff

It's been a rough day. I woke up thinking I heard Milo whimpering, so of course I sat straight up (scaring him in the process) hurting my back. He was fine, it was actually a bird calling that I heard. But here I was in a lot of pain.

Thankfully I already had an appointment with the osteopath, so after spending most of the day laying on the couch in horrible pain and doing the 20 minute (usually 10) walk down to their office I was offered some relief. Relief in the form of more pain as the osteopath pushed against knots in my back and manipulated bits and bobs, but goodness did it help! I feel about 70% better than I did this morning. Still not awesome, I wouldn't go for a long walk, but I might be able to manage grocery shopping tomorrow.

Milo has been licking one of his feet again. Just his back left, so I don't think it's an allergic reaction, but it's worrying none the less :( poor thing is a bit OCD about it. He is back to wearing a sock.

Upping amitriptyline to 60 mg.

Lovely GP

I had a productive meeting with my GP today. As usual she was lovely, and quite concerned with my spike in pain levels. She agreed that trying the tricyclic antidepressants was a good idea, she actually has some other chronic pain patients on them so she knows that they can work well. She has also added 'round the clock panadol osteo (which is just a slow release panadol/acetaminophen) to my list of meds.

I took the amitriptyline a bit ago, and honestly i'm feeling a little bit speedy (not that i've taken speed before...just mind racy and that sort of thing) so....we'll see how I feel in another half hour. I'm hoping it will help...really really hoping.

I've also lost two kilos since my last visit! Yay! BP is also fine so...yeah...other than being diseased and symptom-ed and fat i'm pretty healthy ;)

Days of Rain

It continues to rain, but we had a respite for most of the day off and on. Milo was able to get out for a much needed walk. I was able to get some laundry done for the upcoming week. Bran ate soup :). I'm still feeling very tired, but I haven't taken any supplements or medicines for the past two days so that may be effecting me. I had a nap again despite having a decent nights sleep. I do enjoy the quiet days at home with my little family :).

Tramadol Trouble

I had a not very nice time last night :(. I was in a lot of pain after carrying around a little lost dog (who is safely back home) so I decided to take some pain killers. Tramadol.

About an hour after I had taken it I woke up with a pounding heart, nausea, and high anxiety. I tried to go back to sleep but really couldn't and I was worried I was having an adverse reaction, so I asked Bran to stay up with me while I waited it out. He, of course, stayed up with me and would until I was alright. Honestly, I wanted him to stay up incase I stopped breathing. I hadn't actually taken very much, 100 mg, but I had also has a voltarin and a panadeine forte earlier in the day, so maybe it mixed somehow? After about an hour and a half I was through the anxiety attack and falling asleep, so we wen't back to bed. I still ended up waking up  with a pounding heart over the course of another hour and a half every time I started to fall asleep, but it calmed down quickly. Not so much fun. I felt very sick today as well. I barely moved from the couch and needed Bran to help take care of me. I'm feeling mostly better now, after having taken a few naps through out the day.

So lesson learned. Tramadol does not agree with me and i'll need to find an alternative. I don't want to go through such a scary situation again. Also I was/am still sore :( so it didn't really help so much...

BC and GP

Ah dear, what a day it's been.

We've had a bit of a tiff in the body corporate over what trees were meant to be cut down along our side yard. It was generally understood that tree which could cause damage were to be cut down and poisoned  I have no idea which trees can cause damage here, so Bran and I left it up to the tree lopper and other people in te BC. Well, I woke up this morning to the people cutting down almost all of the trees on the property. Again, maybe they were all potential damage inducers? I wouldn't know. But now we have some of the other owners very upset about it. It's sad to see the beautiful big trees being cut down, and I feel like I should feel worse about it...but I also feel that we need to protect our home, and it was decided that we would plant more suitable trees there once things are settled. Anyway, upset on the homefront is never nice...so thats been part of my day.

The other part of my day was going to my GP and taking care of some paperwork that I need to deal with centrelink. I've also got a new six month card for blood tests and we've decided which path to go with for the psychologist i'm seeing. I also got a big thing of good olive oil for half price :D. Tomorrow i'll need to go deal with centrelink and see of they can actually be of any assistance, if not i'll have to try somewhere else...

Overall i'm alright today, my mood has been better since I had a nice cry over labs testing on beagles yesterday. Painwise was meh, my right arm is still sore and my muscles are more tender than normal. I'll start back on my DMARDs tomorrow, but i'm glad I got a blood test done while i've been off of them for a while. It'll be interesting to see what they say.

I will also say i've taken a tramadol, I need a bit of pain relief. Goodnight

Supplement Update

You would think i'd learn to write in the middle of the day when i'm trying not to do too much since it's so hot....but no. Somehow I write before bed. Eh, maybe it's a good way to de-stress? I seem to recall hearing that somewhere.

Today was a quiet day at home. I got some laundry done but that was about it. Made a salad with bbq chicken on it for dinner. Bran and I are really digging salad with chicken on it now-a-days. I started taking my new animo acid supplement today as well. It's too early to notice a difference, but I can say I was able to do an extra loop around the park on our walk. I haven't really had stable energy though, going back and forth between wanting to be up and doing things to desperately trying to make some coffee so I can do something useful.

Pain wasn't too bad today. R wrist and elbow mostly. Shoulders are back to being stiff. My back is getting sore when I sit too long. Speaking of which i'm also back on the InflamEze Activ which is a mix of devil's claw, cat's claw, and a tumeric extract. In the past it did seem to help my back pain so i'll see how it goes as the saligesic didn't really help at all. At least I can say i've trialed some of the things i'll be prescribing ;). I'm still on the valarian complex, Remotiv, vit D,  activated vit B's, and the withania complex until that runs out.

GP tomorrow to talk about centrelink stuff and mental health plan.

Biochem and Panko

Here is to getting back into the swing of things. Today I went to go see my Naturopath. He's been a real trooper with helping me deal with all off the symptoms and emotional problems that go along with being chronically ill. We've found some things that work (in this care, very well for anxiety) and lots of things that haven't. But that's life I suppose. We are trying to raise my energy from a different path this time, utilising a specific amino acid that I forgot the name of and will tell you about tomorrow. He went on about how it assists with mitochondria producing more atp and allowing acytle-CoA something something science biochem......I actually did understand it at the time thanks to my biochemistry course.

On a completely different note, i've found a really good way to panfry chicken. It uses panko instead of flour or bread crumbs :D. Turned out nice and crunchy to go ontop of our salads. Yay sort-of healthy!

Tall Stack

It's been almost a month since I last updated. Oh, and what a month it has been!

I ended up getting food poisoning and being quite ill for two weeks, this ended with me deferring one of my exams. I also ended up going off my meds because obviously there is no point in taking them if they just go through you (or potentially make your immune system even less able to help).

Being off my meds has brought on some interesting symptoms though. I've found i'm much more cognitively impaired at times (brain fog) which would mean that is an autoimmune aspect and not a mystery fibro symptom. I've also started developing psoriasis plaques again. Which would mean I do indeed have psoriatic arthritis and no sero-negative rheumatoid (though it's possible that could develop at any time). I've kept off my pharmaceuticals so I can show this to my doctor on wednesday.

I have gone back on my naturopathic medicine, and while I definitely see the benefit in the anti-anxiety and anti-depression herbs (St. john's wart, hops, and valerian with passion flower extract as an emergency for panic attacks), I don't think i've had much help with the saligesic or the herbs that are meant to help with energy. But considering most of my pain is fibro, i'm not too surprised. I also tried taking some magnesium, but it caused stomach upset. My next course of action is to go back to Mark the acupuncturist and see if that will help.

In other news, I am a permanent resident. That actually doesn't mean so much...they can't kick me out as easily. In a year I can apply for citizenship. I can access centrelink if need be (although Bran is thankfully earning a good living, thus I cannot access anything). And I pay domestic prices for uni. But I am not able to get the HELP debt (which is a gov't loan for school which you start paying back once you earn a certain wage). Which I thought I could get... So i'll likely only be going to school part time this year and hopefully finding a job.

I got a new phone. It's shiny.

Finally, i've gone to a few more meet-ups. One of my usual pagan ones, one for a fibromyalgia group, and one for a different pagan group. The fibro one was nice, it was good to be able to talk about things with people who understand a bit more. The other pagan one was quite fun and i'd like to meet up with them again. Quite a lively bunch! We had a nice discussion about crystals, contacting the other side, and a bit about older magic systems. I also had the opportunity to try mead, which I quite enjoyed.

Thats about it for me. I'll try to get back in the habit of regular updates.

STRESS

Oh. My. Goodness. It's been a very stressful last few days. My anxiety has been increasing anyway as I have final exams coming up, my family hasn't contacted me, as well as dealing with the ever ongoing pain and problems that come along with PsA and fibro. Now i'm having problems with my neighbour. I wont go into too much detail, our dog scared her cat and that caused some upset. I can understand that, I just hate knowing that someone who shares a wall with us is mad. Plus I know Milo didn't mean any harm :( he just hasn't met a cat....but it also puts a stop on our plan to adopt a cat until we know Milo will calm down.

Anyway, it's all caused too much stress and I was really starting to break down. My naturopath gave me another herbal tablet and a vial of passion flower extract to help deal with anxiety, i'm very thankful for that as i've been able to function much better for the past day and a half than I have for the previous week! Which is good, as I have a very busy week of meeting with my GP, rheumatologist, and osteopath. I met with my OT already today to deal with my wrist brace hurting my thumb, as well as class and getting blood drawn for my monthly tests.

Honestly, i'm tired and really in pain from my wrist, elbow, hips, feet, jaw and ankle. But my back is feeling mostly better! It's nice knowing I have some people on my health care team who are doing their best to help.

Osteopath and Ocular Migraines

Time for an update. I'm off the low carb thing, I started getting ocular migraines and losing weight is just not worth hallucinating.

My R wrist and elbow have been acting up the past few days. I can still use them, but since seeing the OT they have just been grumpy. My jaw is also back to being painful. I'm trying to figure out of maybe there was some trigger that caused it. Sugar maybe? Too much gluten? I'm too tired to try to cut anything else out of my diet right now. Though i'm likely to go visit a Naturopath that focusses for on allergies and diet soon, as suggested by my Osteopath. Speaking of osteopath, she's quite nice. A bit more hard edged than my lovely naturopath, but in a good way. Though she did give me the "sexual abuse is linked to obesity is linked to fibromyalgia" speech. I know that it is their job as a holistic practitioner, but how many times do I need to be told i'm fat? *sigh* But her manipulations have definitely been helping my hip/knee pain and tightness. Not as much the second time around but I can still notice a distinct difference.

She also brought up the anti-TNF meds, which was interesting. My rheumy doesn't want me going on them though as he feels the pain I experience is all fibro because my blood tests are fine. Except from my understanding fibro pain is more in the muscles, and while I do get pain in my muscles a lot of my pain is in the joints. I'm going to have to see my rheumy again soon as I got my MRI results, though i'm dragging my feet :P.

Aaanyway, other than that my energy levels haven't been bad. I went on a crazy 20 minute cleaning spree and got the kitchen and bathroom clean (mostly, the floor is Bran's job ;) ). Still getting good results from the naturopathic medicine as far as my back pain goes. We're going to take Milo to the dog park for the first time in a while, poor thing. He'll be happy that he gets to run around.

Migraines

I had a migraine today. I should have seen it coming as yesterday I was getting little flashes out of the corner of my eye and things were getting a little melty at times, today I had trouble focusing, saw a few little flashes, then my head started to split. Thankfully I only had one class today instead of my regular two, and I got to leave early from even that. On my way home it only got worse until everything looked a little bit like a painting and my head was pounding. Took two voltarin and a nap. Two hours later, I was feeling alright enough to make lupper (lunch/supper) and rest for the remainder of the day. I don't get bad migraines very often, but it just puts a stop on everything when I do....i've been getting them more often recently.

In other news, sort of conned my OT into getting the results from my hand MRI (it's related! She is working with my hands!) no lesions, no synovial inflammation, but I do have inflammation in my palm and going up my fingers? I didn't actually get to keep the results so I can't look it up. I'll have to go see the rheumy.

Surprise MRI

I had my visit with the neurosurgeon about my back today. It was just so workcover can figure out whats going on really. He said basically i'll be fine, just that there isn't a particular time frame of when i'll start feeling better (the back injury, anyway). So i'm not really sure what workcover is going to do with this information...

Anyway, I also got to jump ahead in line for my right hand MRI! This will show whether the arthritis has damaged my joints yet. Despite the fact that I only put in the request today, they had a cancelation so i'm up tomorrow afternoon. I'm not really sure what I want it to show...of course I don't want there to be damage, since that is irreversible and bad, but part of me wants to have something to show to my rheumatologist to say "See! Told ya! Now I would like it if you gave a crap!". We'll just have to see. It'll be good to get a baseline anyway for in the future to judge if any/how much damage is done in a specific time period. If there is damage, it'll also help say whether it is PsA or RA. I'm not really digging either, but there are some different ways they are treated.

On a very good note, my Naturopath has me on some new tablets that I think are helping. One is a pain tablet which I do notice helping, since I can tell when it wears off (lol). Another is one thats meant to help me calm down and sleep better. I think it's helping, I did sleep well last night. The last is st. john's wart which has anti-depressant/anti-anxiety properties. That one has for sure helped me get off the stupid cymbalta! I've actually not has any brain zaps today, and even over the past two weeks they've been bearable and decreasing. I feel a bit bad that I wasn't able to tolerate the liquid mixes he made, i'm not sure if it was the alcohol base or what...but I just couldn't do it.

Now i'm off to bed to prepare for another full day tomorrow of class, MRI, and a doctors appointment all in different areas of town >.> Yay!

COLD!

My goodness, this is more of a note to myself than anything; cold is PAINFUL! The temperature dropped today quite drastically as well as being a little bit drizzly and I can feel it in my joints. Fingers, wrists, elbows and feet are not happy campers. My back is perpetually sore, but the other joints definitely weren't this bad yesterday. I look a panadeine forte this morning and it didn't put a dent in it >.>. Meh.

On a lighter note, we are looking to get a cat! Milo has been lonely and things didn't work out with the dog minder, so we thought a little sibling would help with his anxiety. We've found a lovely cat who apparently enjoys playing with dogs so we are hopeful that we will be able to adopt him :) (his name is Pepper and he is a very handsome short haired black kitteh).

Tired

I've tried to think of something interesting to write, but honestly i'm just very tired. I'm not at my worst point pain wise, but I am sore. I'm just really tired both physically and mentally from dealing with diseases and my body falling appart on me. I'm only 23 but i'm already dealing with a seronegative arthritis,  degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, facet joint degeneration, nerve damage, some mental health difficulties (PTSD and depression related to it), and all the fun stuff that comes with the medicines for said diseases/conditions and of course my previous emergency microdiscectomy which kicked it all off (I think).

I'm not saying my life is awful or woe is me, I know i'm lucky to be in a country where healthcare is covered by taxes or is relatively inexpensive. I'm very lucky to have a loving husband and supportive in-laws. I'm lucky in that I can still walk, and that my pain isn't worse than it is.

I'm just tired.

Even over my "vacation" from school I was still running around dealing with health related meetings.

On a lighter note, I have some new herbal mixtures to try that focus a bit more on fibromyalgia and CFS. I do so love talking to my new naturopath, David :) he is such a funny guy. He also doesn't mind explaining what the different herbs do and whatnot.

Well, now i'm off to attempt to get some housework done before the end of the day.